Fast track for 2000 projects

More than 2000 stimulus projects ­nationwide have been exempted from normal development assessments in a new approach to construction that the federal government will today urge state and territory treasurers to extend.

The reform is being strongly backed by Treasury secretary
Ken Henry
and developers, but the federal opposition is gearing up to take ­advantage at the looming election of community discontent about the fast-tracking of the stimulus projects.

Figures obtained by The Australian Financial Review reveal that nearly 2400 projects in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia have been fast-tracked.

Many of these could not be ­assessed and approved in time for a strict Commonwealth funding deadline but some projects had been opposed by local councils.

The exemptions have enabled state and territory governments to quickly launch stimulus projects. The average assessment time for NSW projects approved by the state co-ordinator-general is now 34 days.

But lawyers say some com­-munity groups have begun seeking legal advice about challenging stimulus projects, even though the right to challenge approvals was limited by the changes introduced last year.

Despite this concern, the Commonwealth is pushing the states and territories to further reform their planning and development processes to ensure more new housing is released. Local government and planning ministers agreed at a meeting in Canberra last month to build on and accelerate measures adopted as part of the stimulus package to streamline development assess­­-ment.

At a meeting today, federal Treasurer Wayne Swan will ask his state and territory counterparts to agree to reforms to assist with housing affordability.

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Although the change to development assessment is only one of the reforms being pushed by the federal government, it is likely to be the most contentious. Last month, Mr Swan told a private housing meeting in Canberra that to make a lasting impact on housing affordability “we need to be ready to confront issues that are controversial".

A number of states have flagged that they will not agree to some of the changes but NSW has indicated it may do so.

Last year, as part of the National Partnership Agreement on the Nation Building and Jobs Plan, the federal government required states and territories to cut planning “red tape" for stimulus projects to enable money to be quickly pumped into the economy to insulate it from the global financial crisis.

This led to the creation of co-ordinators-general – based on the model in Queensland since 1938 – in every state and territory to co-ordinate stimulus projects and to take over and approve projects if they could not otherwise be delivered on time. But soon after these changes, lawyers warned of the risks associated with quickly rolling out the stimulus projects nearly a year ago.

In April, one of Australia’s largest law firms, Mallesons, warned its clients: “While many may argue that different economic times call for different approaches, the failure to undertake full environmental assessment and adequately involve the community may not only have unintended impacts in loss and detriment to the environment but may also result in delay at later points in the project which causes significant management and operating issues."

Since then, there have been complaints of inappropriate designs and a lack of consultation about a number of the projects.

Victorian barrister Brian Walters, SC, said: “The catch-cry has been ‘shovel ready’ when the community may not have been ready. What we are seeing more and more is residents being squeezed out from having any say."

In some cases, resident groups claim private developers have rebadged rejected proposed developments as social housing so they can be dealt with under stimulus fast-track processes.

Most opposition has been to social housing projects, particu­-larly in inner-city areas of Mel­-bourne and Sydney where there are land shortages and planning restrictions on height, style and density. But complaints have also arisen in regional areas. In Moree in regional NSW, a two-storey public housing project in an older area of town with single-storey fibro houses is attracting protest from residents and the shire council.

“We don’t need [high] density, we have all the space in the world," Moree mayor Katrina Humphries said.

Those involved with the stimulus projects say there have been few complaints given the scale of construction being undertaken.

“We are building 19,300 houses," federal Housing Minister
Tanya Plibersek
said. “It would be unusual if there were no com-munity comment on that.

“I think by and large that stimulus building has been very well-received."

South Australian co-ordinator-general Rod Hook told the AFR that despite the speed of the roll-out and the scale of some of the buildings, he had dealt with very few contentious issues throughout the process.

NSW co-ordinator-general Bob Leece said people had complained about a lack of consultation in only six of 2800 projects in the state.

In only two instances, had he overruled decisions by councils – a rooftop play area and footbridge at Wenona School in North Sydney and Brigidine College in St Ives. But in both projects, approval occurred after a thorough assess-ment and the imposition of strict conditions on construction.

Mr Leece said his role enabled local politics, which could other-wise delay projects, to be taken out of the picture.

“This is normal project management," he said.

“You do as many activities as you can do in parallel and you keep in constant dialogue with all stake-holders.

“We listen to their concerns but make a decision free of local pol-itical issues."

In a speech to an infrastructure conference last week, Mr Henry also referred to the problems with council politics preventing timely delivery of development approval.

He said “well-intentioned plan-ning and regulation" could be contributing to the lack of af-fordable housing and made particular reference to the “high costs of compliance and scope for discretionary political inter-ference".

Urban Taskforce chief executive Aaron Gadiel said the special stimulus development approval processes had many of the features industry had been calling for.

“Too many councils see them-selves as agents of a small minority of ‘not in my back yard’ activists that can pop up in relation to so many projects and hold them hostage," Mr Gadiel said.

But last week, Liberal senator Gary Humphries likened the haste with which the stimulus projects were being started to the botched insulation scheme.

“Communities are being railroaded because there is a time line being imposed by the federal government which broaches no challenge," he told the Senate.

Ms Plibersek said the aim of the federal government’s proposed reforms was not to limit consultation about development but ensure it occurred earlier through more strategic planning.

Late last year, the Council of Australian Governments agreed to new national criteria for capital city strategic planning systems. The criteria will be linked to future commonwealth infrastructure funding.

“People do have a right to say what happens in their neighbourhood but it is much better for that to happen very early on when you can say, ‘This is what we want in our suburbs’, rather than having a fight every time anyone wants to put a up a carport or fence," Ms Plibersek said.